


Keeping the Magic Secret

by fathomlessspite



Category: Merlin - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-15
Updated: 2008-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-12 12:54:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/125033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fathomlessspite/pseuds/fathomlessspite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Uther is just waiting on fate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping the Magic Secret

**Author's Note:**

> Possible to read as co-ersion or non-con, but it's really not :) Written for MErlin flashfiction challenge - Secrets.

Uther knew. He knew about Merlin.

The name itself was not common, but every child who bore it had been in is eye. Most did not remain when it became clear there was nothing there that could not be found in the rest of the kingdom’s people.

But this child, this boy who had left his village for fear that he was too obvious; that he was far too conspicuous in the small village. He had been part of Uther’s life since his birth.

He seemed to be nothing. An idiot even.

He played it disturbingly well.

But Uther knew.

Not because he had witnessed anything personally, but the young man sparked. His eyes burned when he was forced to stand still in Uther’s court. When he had to hold his tongue his eyes spoke for him.

Merlin breathed power. And it drew Uther in, magic or no. As it always had done. In the past when he had let it had very nearly destroyed him. But he knew what he was getting in to this time, maybe that would enable his survival.

Maybe not.

Uther hated magic, but not more so than he loved his son or his kingdom, appearances notwithstanding. The prophecies about this boy went further back than written record; than living memory.

He knew and he had accepted his part in it long ago.

This was why what he did really did not matter now.

This was why he sat on his throne studying the boy who would help unite his kingdom, to save it from the darkness he had helped to create by suppressing magic.

He was just a boy. A boy who exuded power from every pore, but who did not seem to know what to do with it.

Uther knew. His actions now did not matter.

His son would likely grow to hate him eventually; the kind of king he was, the kind of man he was. Uther’s actions did not matter. He had shaped his son as he was meant to; the rest was up to the man in front of him.

He did not know whose hands he would die at, but it was inevitable and his death would likely lead to change for the better, if prophecy were to be believed.

Should he not be able to partake once more in the opium he had denied himself for so long? Especially when it was bowing so reverently at his feet.

“Merlin, I know,” he said, his voice echoing off of the empty rooms, reverberating back to him sounding hollow and distant.

“My lord?” he asked, feigned confusion in his every syllable.

“Do not play the fool with me,” Uther replied lowly. “Despite your gift at doing so,” he added with a raised eyebrow.

Panic flashed in those eyes now. Uther continued on hastily, willing the power to dance back into them.

“You will continue as you have been.” Merlin frowned. “Protecting him, saving his life,” Uther elaborated.

“But-”

“Do you really wish to argue over this?” Uther asked, eyes straying to the window that opened out onto the square where the executions took place.

“No, I-”

“You’ll have to remain his manservant in name for now; you’re a little young for anything else. But when you are older we’ll name you advisor to him,” Uther continued.

“Yes my lord,” Merlin nodded, but Uther could still see the confusion dancing in his eyes. It would remain there for a long time; Uther did not have to explain himself. No matter what this young man may become he was just a servant now, and Uther was a king.

“You realise what I am letting you get away with?” Uther said standing and walking toward him.

“I do,” Merlin nodded his eyes wide and earnest, “Although I do not understand why.”

“You do not need to. You will continue to act as you have, protecting my son under the guise of being his manservant. I will however assign someone else to fulfil your previous duties,” he added as he stopped a hairsbreadth away from Merlin.

Merlin looked up at him, eyes suddenly intelligent. “What will I be doing with my time, sire?”

Uther laughed quietly, lifting Merlin’s chin with his finger and running his thumb gently along his jaw, his cheek, the side of his mouth.

“You will be serving me,” he answered, lowering his voice to a whisper.

Merlin looked at him for several moments before his lip quirked and he nodded slightly, “Yes, my lord.”

Uther took a step impossibly closer so that they were toe to toe, his face making contact with a few strands of Merlin’s haphazard hair.

He breathed in.

Uther knew, and there was nothing he could do about it. So he might as well take advantage of the situation.

“Good,” he replied with a smile.

  
Uther knows, but for Camelot he will tolerate it, allow it. For his kingdom, his home and his son he will keep this magic secret.


End file.
